The Chaos Stream
by Reploid the Echidna
Summary: When Gia is destroyed by Genesis, Vincent and his freinds are forced to travel the galaxy fleeing from their opposition. They soon stumble upon Space Colony ARK and planet Mobius. Final Fantasy 7 and Sonic the Hedgehog crossover. Wow a new story.
1. Chapter 1

I've thought of the greatest story. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: of course I don't own any of the characters in this story.

Chaos Stream

Chapter 1

Gone. That was the only world that he could think of. It was gone. His world was gone. Destroyed, finished. He couldn't even bring himselft to look at it. He slowly moved his head out of the window to see the deep ocean of stars that would usually call space. To him it was a sign that his death was near. He pulled his head away from the window and approached a nearby door. Once passing through he found himself on the bridge of a vessel. Inside, he found six others all wearing the expression he had once carried. An expression he hadn't made in fourty years. The face of depression. One of his comrades, a young girl not even in her twenties fell to her knees and wept. Another girl, wearing a black leather vest and a matching pair of shorts, kneeled over in attempt to calm the young girl. "There, there Yuffie," the older girl said. "WE'll make it through this. Don't worry."

The younger girl, identiifed as Yuffie, cried with her face in her hands. She threw her gaze over to a blonde haired man who leaned on a nearby wall. His eyes were closed showing that he had absolutle nothing to say. Though at times he was difficult to unerstand, it was obvious that was his own way of mourning. The blonde haired boy opened his eyes to find another young man with black hair and red eyes standing by the doorway. He wore a black, leather jump suit and black cloak. A gun with three barrels sat at his waist.

"It's not easy I know," the red eyed man said as he finally enetered the room. He approached the blonde haired boy and looked out the large window that he leaned against.

&&&

(flashback)

Cloud leaped through the air avoiding a blast. He looked into the face of his enemy. He was a man with white, spiky hair. He only wore a pair of pants and boots revealing his muscular upper body. He had one angelic wing coming from the left side of his back and wore a blood red leather jacket with matching pants. This was Genessi. Cloud eyed his opponent and threw his gaze to a nearby destroyed building. Vincent stood with his gun, Cerberus extended. Next to him was a muscular, black man. Another of one Cloud's comrades stood with his amr cannon fully charged. The two unleashed their attacks. Without looking, Genesis put his arm out and the blast of green energy. With his other hand, he caught three bullets.

Vincent and Barret gasped in astonishment. Genesis gave Cloud an evil smirk and sent the back to where it came from. Vincent and Barret both jumped off the destrtoyed building in attept to avoid the blast. Cloud pushed against his sword's blade and upon hearing a click, he pulled another sword from it. Genesis reached behind him and pulled two swords of his own out. Both of them had a shotgun barrel attached to its blade. The two leaped at eachother and met into a loud blade lock. Cloud glared at Genesis who only replied with another smile.

"Cloud," shouted a voice with a southern accent. Cloud pushed away from Genesis and leaped backwards when a barrage of missiles came crashing down upon the two. Cid stood on a nearby ledge with a radio in his hand. "Did we get him?" he called into his small device.

He waited for the smoke to disappear only to find a light green barrier had formed around both Cloud and Genesis. The barrier faded and Genesis slowly approached Cloud who lay unconscious on the ground. He brought his two swords across Cloud's next and prepared cut off his head.

"Final Heaven," called a female's voice. Genesis turned his head only to meet the glowing of Tifa Lockheart. The blow sent him flying through a nearby building. Accompanying Tifa was the young ninja, Yuffie Kisuragi. Yuffie stood over Cloud and put her hand over his chest. A small glow appeared in Yuffie's arms which made it's way into Cloud.

"How dare you," Genesis' voice shouted from the distance. A bundle of debrees shot up from the ground revealing Genesis with a small bruise on his face. With both swords drawn, Genesis shot forward and prepared to strike. Tifa looked at Yuffie who was still int process of healing.

"Yuffie, can you speed it up?"

"Just alittle more," Yuffie replied without looking at Tifa.

"Hurry."

Genesis' eyes widened as he drew closer. Yuffie's heart dropped as the villian appeared over them with his swords ready to strike. Everything seemed to slow down as he greeted the two girls with an evil grin. Just then, a red lion like creature came charging into him. Cloud opened his eyes and grabbed his sword. He threw his gaze to Genesis who was now locked in battle against Red XIII.

"Cloud," Tifa said putting her hand on his shoulder. "How do you feel?"

Cloud stood to his feet without answering. Vincent suddenly appeared next to him with weapon in hand. Cloud eyed Vincent who replied with the same looked. "Never better."

Genesis kicked Red XIII into a stack of debrees leaped backwards. Cloud pulled a second sword out and leaped into the air as well. Without looking, Genesis put his sword behind him and blocked on coming attack. Vincent fired two shots and Yuffie threw her giant shuriken. Genesis pushed off of Cloud and deflected the bullets and Yuffie's shuriken. He stopped and looked down at the warriors who dared to defy him. His two swords began to glow. shot up high into the air above the clouds, preparing for his deadly attack. He stopped suddenly and looked down. He could see nothing but clouds now. He crossed his two glowing swords and shot back down at neck breaking speed. Cloud and the others could only watch as Genesis came crasing into the ground causing a massice explosion.

Genesis stood at the center of city. He had finally reached his objective. The planet was damaged. He had did without the power of the Black Materia. It would only take seconds before the planet would attempt to heal itself with the Life Stream. Then it happened, strands beautiful, green energy slowly slowly slithered from out of the crater he had formed. VIncent slowly lifted himself up. He could barely keep his left open and it felt like his legs were going to fall of. Genesis stood not too far away from him. VIcncent's heart began to pick up speed upon what he saw, Genesis was absorbing the LifeStream. Genesis' body was consumed by a demonic aura. He looked over to VIncent with an evil look on his face.

&&&

Vincent pulled himself out of the flashback as it was too hard to continue thinking of it. Thinking home reminded him of her. She was gone, gone forever. Never again could he have a conversation with her. Forever out of his reach, Lucrecia. This was the second time he had lost her. Vincent clutched a fist in anger. The anger then turned to sadness and his hand fell open again. Cid looked down from his post. He and Cloud were the only one who truly understood him and he could tell this event hit Vicent harder than anyone.

"Why don't you all get some rest?' Cid called. "Some sleep would really do us some good right now."

Vincent was the first leave. He had nothing to say to anyone. His life had no more purposej now. He made his way through the corridors of the ship and stopped in front of a nearby door. The door slid open, revealing the engine room. The ship didn't have any bedrooms so this would have to do for now. Vincent leaned on a nearby wall, slid onto the floor and shut his eyes.

He knew it was impossible to sleep at a time like this, but in his situation he had no choice but hope for the best. The door to the engine room slid open again. Though he didn't care who it was, Vincent was concerned as to why he couldn't hear the sound of foot steps. A chill entered the room.

"Vincent," came a soft, female voice. "Wake up Vincent."

Upon recongizing the voice, Vincent lifted his head to find he was sitting in front of the the love of his life, Lucrecia Crescent. Vincent also noticed the change of scenery. He was sitting in Lucrecia's tomb. He could see the love of his life in a state if what looked like suspended animation. She was surrounded by a pile of pure materia.Vincent didn't bother to get up. He knew this place wasn't real. It was just his past haunting him. He looked down once again. Before his dream ended, Vincent heard Lucreica say something. Something abnormal.

"Chaos Stream."

Vincent opened his upon waking up. It didn't feel like long but it was obvious that he was asleep for a few hours. He heard the door open and saw that Red XII had came as a wake up call.

"What is it?" Vincent asked without looking.

"Cid has called a meeting up at the bridge," the red tiger responded. "He said it has something to do with finding a new home."

Vincent looked away and went into a state of thought. "Why? There is no point of living now. I'm nothing without you."

"Oh Vincent," Lucrecia's voice echoed around the walls of his mind.

"Lucrecia?"

Vincent enetered reality once more and without saying anything, exited the engine and made his way towards the bridge.

Please review. I would really apreciate it.


	2. Chapter 2

Enjoy.

Chapter 2

A paperboy stood at a corner waving the daily newspaper. "Extra, Extra," he called out. "Read all about it."

A middle-aged man wearing a grey siut and a black tie approached the young with a dollar in hand. "I'll take one of those young man."

The man opened his newspaper. The headline read "Sonic The Hedgehog Saves Children From Burning Building." The Newspaper was filled with stories about Sonic the Hedgehog doing good deeds all over the world. This was to no surprise to the man as this was how every newspaper was. Just then a harsh wind forced its way down the street, blowing the man's newspaper away. He looked over the paper boy at the corner to see that all his newspapers were scattered all over the street.

"What do we have here?" a voice said looking at its newly acquired newspaper. "Burning Building huh?"

SONIC the HEGDEHOG threw the newspaper into the wind and continued running the streets. Everything seemed to be a blur his wake. Sonic run up the side of a nearby builiding. The sunlight were barely seen over the horizon over the building he could he was approaching the tip so he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around his legs. Within seconds, Sonic shot off the top of the building in his spin mode. He immedialtly broke out of spin mode upon reaching the hieght of his jump. "Sonic!" came a young voice. Without looking behind him, Soinc extended his hand, which met another. MILES 'TAILS' PROWER looked down at his friend from the cockpit of his plane the Tornado.

"You made it," Sonic replied with friendly smile on his face. Tails swung Sonic over the side of the plane and Sonic climbed onto the wing.

&&&

The earth seemed so small from this angle. So small that one could hold it in the palm of his hands. Shadow stood near a window in the Space Colony ARK. This was his home and the only part of his past he knew of. Shadow stared at the planet for what seemed like centuries without blinking. There was something about this planet he had always wondered. Was this the only inhabited planet in this vast sea of stars? Could it be possible for one to sail the stars to find a place of purity? A promise land? Shadow pulled his attention from the window upon feeling a slight squeeze in his head. Shadow brought a hand up to his forehead to try to ease the shallow pain. It seemed to be working, and then the pain seemed to grow worse. Shadow groaned and fell to his knees upon hearing voices inside his head. His eyes began to burn and his body began to fill with an familiar sensation to break loose. It was the power of Chaos. Was it negative or positive energy this time?

"Shadow," the black hedgehog heard a young girl's voice echo in his head.

"Maria!" Shadow said as he unleashed the positive energy of Chaos Control. Shadow vansished and reappeared in the vast depths of space. He could no longer hold in the negative energy and the voices were now growing louder and louder in his head. Memories began rushing by in his head. He couldn't keep up with him them all. Until one final image appeared. Maria stood staring at him with another woman next to her. A woman Shadow had never seen before, or at least he didn't remember her. "Shadow."

With that final image, Shadow yelled at the top of his lungs, unleashing an almighty explosion of Chaos Energy. This wasn't the first time this had happened. Shadow had found himself filling with a lot of Chaos energy as of late.

&&&&&

Yuffie entered the engine room to find Vincent leaning against a wall, his head hung over. He was obviously sleeping. Yuffie quietly crept over to him and slid her back down the side of the wall next to him. She looked at the strange, black haired man; no one was ever able to tell how he felt or what was going on his head. For all she knew, the destruction of Gaia could've meant absolutely nothing, seeing as his everything had died over forty years ago. If only Vincent would express his feelings to others. Letting that thought go, Yuffie leaned against Vincent and shut her eyes.

Cloud walked the halls of the Shera, both fists clenched. The only thing on his mind at the moment was revenge. It would be a small matter of time before 'G' caught up with them. He could feel it in his gut that they were being followed. They had to find a place of refuge. If 'G' didn't find them then starvation would.

"Cloud," came Cid's voice over the intercom system. "Everyone, I think I have something y'all should see."

Cloud turned a corner to find Tifa and Red XIII heading in his direction. The three nodded to eachother and made their way to the bridge. Upon making their arrival, Cloud, Tifa, and Red XIII found themselves to be greeted by Cid, Barret, Reeve, and Shelke. "Where Vincent and Yuffie?" Cloud asked.

"I dunno," Cid responded without looking. "But we can fill them in on the details later."

Cid pulled himself away from the ship's steering mechanism and pulled on a nearby rod, activating the autopilot system. He made his way down a few stairs to meet his friends. He looked over to Shelke who at a nearby monitor. "Hit it."

Shelke pushed a button on the computer's monitor and the bridge of the ship was consumed in darkness. A formation of lights hovered into formation about the room. The ship was creating a simulation of what was going on in the nearby space. Once the hologram finally took form, Cid began his explanation. "Look here," he said, pointing to a far away of the hologram. The computerized image Cid was referring to had pulled itself closer to him, giving a more vivid image. Before the team was a cloud of red energy. "Now I have some good news and some bad news. The since I've already pointed out the bad news first, I'll have Shelke explain to you what we found. Shelke?"

The small, 19 year old girl made her into the center of the group. "As I entered space through SND(Synaptic Net Dive) I began recording data of the space around me. As I continued my traveled through space I found this cloud energy. It is far too vast for the ship to go around it."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Barret interrupted. "What's the good news?"

Shelke continued to speak. "While still in SND I traveled through the energy storm and found this." The room hologram began to pull itself through the red cloud of energy to find a lush, green planet. "This planet contains the appropriate element and natural resources for contain organic life. We can settle upon this planet but in order to do that we must go through the storm."

"What's so bad about this storm?" Reeve asked.

"The energy in this cloud is very unstable. I had never seen this type of energy before. In some ways, it resembles the corrupted energy of the Lifestream. This energy also contains the same contains you would find in a supernova."

"I figure that we sail through this storm. If anything goes wrong, I'll have you guys on stand by in the emergency escape pods in the hangar," Cid jumped back into the conversation.

"Well by all means let's do it," Tifa brought her fist up to her face with a look-determined tone in her voice. "What do we have to lose?"

"Only our lives," Cloud said in a sarcastic tone of voice. "I say we go for it."

The others in the room replied with a nod. "Then it's settled!" Yuffie said as she jumped with her fist in the air. Wait a minute….Yuffie?

"Where did you come from," Cid asked. "Where's Vincent?"

Yuffie's cheery mood suddenly vanished upon realizing that her gothic companion wasn't with her. "Yeah, come to think of it when I woke up he was gone."

&&&&

Knuckles stood on the top step of the Master Emerald's shrine, looking out the open forest. The wind blowing in his locks brought a calm tone to the floating island. He looked back at the Master Emerald; its bright shine was only surpassed by that of the sun. Something about the Emerald didn't seem right though. Could this mean the start of a new crisis? Or could it perhaps be him being insecure? If anything, something didn't seem right. Knuckles took his gaze away from the emerald and looked back towards the sea, seeing the faint image of a plane. As the plane drew closer, the image became clearer and clearer revealing it was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog and his two tailed companion, Tails, as the pilot. A smile spread across Knuckles' face as he waved to the incoming plane.

"Knuckles," Sonic shouted as he leaped off the wing of Tails' plain. He calm to a smooth landing in the forest below and instantly dashed in the red echidna's direction, arriving there in mere seconds. "We've go trouble."

"Don't tell me it's Eggman again," Knuckles pleaded with an unsurprised look on his face.

"He's got Amy."

"Damn it, Sonic, why don't put a leash on that girl already?"

"No time for your corny punch lines now Knuckles," Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the arm and dashed off.

&&&&

The Shera drew closer and closer to the cloud of red energy. The influx of power caused a bit of turbulence. Cid held firm grip at the bridge. He looked down at his friends; all were to be accounted for. Except Vincent. "Alright now listen up," Cid began. "I want ya'll to go down to the hangar and sit yourselves down in the Emergency Escape Pods. Shelke and I will stay up here and navigate."

"But Cid," Yuffie asked. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about us. If things get too hectic we'll high tail our asses down to the hangar with ya'. Hopefully, if things do get too bad, we'll be close enough to that there planet to guarantee the pods make it their safely. You guys better find Vincent and tell what's going on before you do anything tho'. Don't want anyone getting left behind."

With that said, the door to the bridge opened, revealing none other than Vincent Valentine. Cloud, leaning against a wall, shut his eyes as Vincent made his way inside. "Where have you been?" he couldn't help but ask in his calm tone. Vincent stopped and turned his head slightly to Cloud.

"It's complicated."

"'Bout time you got here," Barret shouted. "We've been searching for your ass all over the place."

"Sorry. I heard everything outside. So when do we start the operation?"

Just then, the entire ship quaked, Shelke began typing away at her computer. "The pressure of the energy has increased."

"What," Cid shouted as he positioned himself at Shelke's side. "What does that all mean?"

Shelke, in her smooth yet dull voice replied, "It means that somehow the amount of energy has increased and the danger level has risen. We must act now before things possibly get worse."

"DAMN!" Cid slammed the side of his fist on the control panel. "You heard the lady, get into position."

Cloud threw his eyes open and nearly kicked off the wall, Tifa followed him out the door with Red XIII, Barret and Reeve on their tails. Vincent and Yuffie were left in the room with Shelke and Cid.

"You ready?" Vincent asked.

Yuffie's eyes carried mixed emotion. At a time like this why wouldn't she? If she didn't lose her life to the cruel depths of space she would probably lose one of her friends. But she had to stay positive, "Yeah."

"I'll meet you there."

With that said, Yuffie made her way to the hangar. Vincent looked the mechanical door for a few seconds and then at Shelke and Cid. Vincent walked over to Shelke and reached into his cloak, pulling out a phone. He placed it down next to Shelke, who hadn't noticed him until doing so. She looked at the phone and then up at Vincent. His blood red eyes sent a mental message she would never forget. "I'm there if you need."

Without any exchange of words, Vincent spun around, his cape dancing in his wake, and headed toward the door. The halls of the ship were so empty. As he passed a window, Vincent couldn't help but peer through it to see the energy storm. Sparks of electricity shot across the window, cracking it. Vincent's eyes widened upon seeing the crack spread throughout the window. Without any hesitation, Vincent took off running. But it was too late. The window burst open forming a gaping hole in the ship's side. The air in the ship began to pour out along with Vincent. The black haired hero was lifted off his feet. He caught himself by stabbing his claw into the floor. He knew it would only be time before he would be flung into space, yet his mind insisted that he didn't let go.

"Hurry everyone inside," Cloud said as jumped inside the two seated escape pod. Tifa joined him, Red XIII and Barret shared an escape, leaving Yuffie waiting for her partner, Vincent, who hadn't showed up yet. "Where's Vincent?"

"I don't know," Yuffie replied. "He was right behind me."

Just then, the wall of the ship burst open, the air began to spew out of the puncture in the ship's armor. Yuffie gasped as her heart began to race. But she was not scared for her own life, she feared for Vincent's.

"Ya'll gotta get outta here!" Cid's voice came in over the intercom.

"But Vincent hasn't come yet," Yuffie cried back.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he's fine. Now go."

The large door to the hangar slowly slid open as the escaped pods began to seal themselves shut. Yuffie's eyes began to swell up in tears as she pounded against the reinforced glass. She couldn't leave without Vincent. The room around her began to move downwards, showing that the zero gravity of space had taken a hold of her. She pounded even harder, thinking it would somehow made things better. One of the other pods drifted by. Yuffie wanted to call out to them, but she knew that it would do know no good.

Vincent held his breath in the void of space. He could see the Shera as it entered the energy storm. He also noticed that he too was drifting into the cloud of red energy. He could feel his end approaching. Just when all seemed lost, one of the escape pods from the Shera came drifting towards him. Vincent attempted to swim towards it, but found that he was going nowhere fast.

Yuffie looked out her window once more. To find none other that Vincent Valentine. Tears came streaming down her face as she watched Vincent reach out to her. Yuffie turned the control panel of the pod. She couldn't tell which button did what. She looked back to Vincent to see if he was still there and he was. She had to act quickly if she wanted to save his life. Just then, a streak of lightning blazed by. Yuffie jumped as a result of being startled. She had already entered the storm. She looked toward Vincent again who was slowly moving to the side of her window's view. She noticed one more thing, a vast, green planet which she was approaching fast.

I apologize for not updating any of my other stories. I don't think I will be continuing any of my old. I apologize. Please, no flames.


	3. Chapter 3

I noticed you guys haven't' reviewed my story yet. Are you guys mad that I haven't updated in a while. Look, I'm sorry okay. Now please review. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

Vincent watched Yuffie's pod as it made its way into the planet's atmosphere. He could feel the air in his lungs trying to break its way out of his chest. It wouldn't be long until he met his end. The storm raged around him. Each lightning bolt seemed to be getting closer and closer. Vincent closed his eyes and began looking back at all the important events in his life. Starting from the day he first joined the Turks and met Dr. Lucrecia crescent, to the day he met Cloud and battled Sephiroth and DeepGround. To think that someone who's body was almost invincible was about to be proven wrong. Vincent's state of meditation was suddenly interrupted by a sharp, hot pain. His eyes were forced open to find he had been by one of the lighting bolts, simultaneously forcing him to release his breath. Vincent's mouth burst open, the uneven pressure of space pulling the air outside. Strange enough, Vincent found that he was still alive. He wasn't breathing, yet he was alive. His body felt warm and it got warmer and warmer with every passing second. Vincent looked at his hands to find that they were swelling with energy it was the energy coming from the storm.

He was absorbing the energy of the storm. But how, he wondered. The only way that he could absorb any kind of energy is if it were the corrupted energy from the Lifestream. Vincent reached for his eyes as they began to burn. If it were possible, he would be groaning in agony. He had felt this terrible sensation before; Chaos. He was coming. Vincent could the beast's roar echo inside of his head. He could feel his hands changing with the rest of his body. Vincent pulled his body into a feeble position, causing a sphere of dark energy to form around him. The dark sphere pulled the surrounding storm like a black hole pulling in light rays. With in no at all, the storm was gone.

Cid dropped his cigarette from his mouth as he watched through the Shera's brigde what was going on. He shook around a few times, pulling him back into reality and brought his attention towards Shelke. "Alrighty there little lady," he called to her. "Your work here is done. Now why don't you get your pretty little self out of here before things get worse?"

Shelke's dull, glowing eyes looked at Cid for a short moment; she then began to say, "But what about you?"

"Don't worry," Cid ran his thumb across the underside of his nose. "I'm never going to leave this baby even if it means I die with her. But don't you worry about me. I'll see you on the planet below."

Without any response but a simple nod, Shelke dashed out of the bridge and headed towards her lab.

Vincent could feel his body swelling with energy. His transformation was almost complete. The roar in his head that was Chaos had finally stopped. Vincent forced his eyes open. He threw his body out, causing the sphere of energy to explode. Vincent was no more. He was now Chaos. The beast of corrupted Life energy flapped its wings, trying to maintain balance in the zero gravity. He knew he wouldn't be able to maintain this form for very long. Chaos looked down at the planet below. He could try to make his descent, but he didn't want to risk any chance of burning in the atmosphere. The energy in his body was draining fast. Just then, a flicker of light caught his attention. There, in the not so far distance, Chaos spotted some type of space station. Without any second thought he shot towards it, leaving a streak of his purple aura behind him. As Chaos made his way through the sea of starts, the sound of Lucrecia's voice entered his head.

"I'm so sorry," he heard. "Chaos…"

The last part was cut off Chaos' eyesight began to grow faint. His smooth flight faded into a midair tumble. The last thing he could find was the wall of the space station as he and it made contact.

"Cloud I'm scared," Tifa said as she buried her face in Cloud's arm. Cloud showed no signs of any emotion as he watched the red heat hitting the side of his pod's window. The pod jerked back and fourth as is picked up speed. Cloud clutched the handle on his seat with his free hand. He wasn't sure if this was caused by excitement or fear of death. He was only minutes away from his new home. He looked out the window a second time to find that the pod had finally cooled down. He and Tifa had made it through the atmosphere. Cloud jerked his arm a little bit to catch Tifa's attention. The black haired woman lifted her head and brought her gazed from to her window. She could see a beautiful planet overcome by a blue sea and green land. It was just as how Gaia once was. It would've brought tears to Tifa's eyes. She pulled on Cloud's arm, trying to make him look out of the window with her. Cloud didn't respond, instead, he pushed a button on the control panel the lay before. This caused a steering mechanism to form in front of him. Cloud grabbed it and began to take control of the pod as it cruised through the air.

As the time went by, a thought entered Cloud's head. "Where should we land to meet up with the others?"

"Yeah?" Tifa responded. "You do have a point."

The two looked at each other as a sudden cloud blocked out the sun. Cloud and Tifa brought their attention out of the windows to find that it was not a cloud but it was an airship of some kind.

&&&&

Dr. Eggman looked into a large monitor to find that his battleship, the Egg Carrier was making its way over a smaller ship. The evil doctor rubbed his chin with intrigue. He had never a ship with that kind of architecture on a ship in his life. It seemed as if it were from another world. Egggman rocked back and forth in his chair a few times and then turned it around. One of his greatest creations, Metal Sonic stood before him with its head down, next set of commands. "Bring me that ship and everyone who is inside!" Eggman shouted. The robot's red eyes flicked on and it hovered out of its master room.

&&&&

Cloud and Tifa continued to look out their windows, unaware of how to respond to such a large ship hovering over them. Just then, the escaped pod began to tremble a bit. Cloud looked up. A metallic hand had stabbed through the steel coating of the pod. The hand slowly began to peel the top off, revealing a blue robot in the shape of some type of animal. The animal reached for Cloud. Cloud immediately pushed the autopilot button and leaped out of the hole in the pod, pulling the robot with it. The robot showed no signs emotions with its blood red eyes. Cloud reached for his side and pulled out one of the many extensions to his sword and swung it. The robot suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Cloud. It grabbed him by the back of his neck and began to squeeze tight on it. The robot lifted Cloud above its large head through him down towards the earth that awaits him, thousands of feet. Tifa screamed as she watched her childhood friend spiral towards the ground, unconscious. The hole in her pod's ceiling was suddenly plugged by the robot. The robot reached for her, causing her to black out.

&&&

Sonic atop the wing of the Tornado with Knuckles next to him; Sonic could feel it in his gut that Eggman was nearby. Just then, something caught his eye. It looked as if someone was falling. And as a matter of fact it was. A blonde haired human was falling and he was falling faster. Sonic kneeled over the wing of the ship, looking the pilot, Tails, at an upside down angle. "I see him," Tails took the words out of Sonic's mouth. "Hold on."

With that, the two tailed fox pulled his plane into a straight towards the falling human.

&&&&

Barret slowly opened his eyes. In front of him stood his daughter, Marlene, staring at him from what appeared to be a bedside. Barret lifted his robotic arm and struggled to reach for the little girl.

"Are you okay?" Marlene replied. But something was different Marlene. Her voice, her voice was different. Marlene's form began to slowly fade into something else. The Marlene he knew was no more. Now, standing at Barret's bedside, stood what appeared a type of rabbit. From here appearance, it was girl. It had to one of the most beautiful things since he found Marlene at his doorstep. The little rabbit took a few steps back as Barret sat up in the bed.

"Where am I?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"I found you outside so I decided I'd drag you in," the little rabbit replied in her baby like voice. "My name is Cream. What is your name?"

Barret took a few moments to look back at what had happened before he answered the little rabbit. The last thing he remembered was he and Red XII…

"Wait," Barret shouted slightly. "Was there anyone else with me?"

It didn't take long for Cream to take long before saying, "No. you were the only one there when I found."

"Was there any kind of metal machine with me? Anything at all?"

"The only metal machine that I saw was your arm. What happened to you? Did Mr. Eggman try to turn you into one of his robots?"

Barret wasn't sure what the little girl was talking about and it didn't really didn't matter. He had to find RedXIII. Barret pushed off the bed when he suddenly felt pain in his midsection. He groaned and fell back onto the bed. Cream reached over the bed, trying to comfort him. "Oh mister please don't get up," she pleaded. "Your wounds haven't fully healed yet."

"Barret. Name's barret." With that said, he closed his eyes. It would be a while before he was reunited with his comrades. Hopefully sooner that later.

&&&&

Cloud rubbed his head as he finally reacquainted himself with the world. Standing over him were three colorful blurs whose true forms became more vivid with every passing second. They were three small creatures, one red, one blue and one orange. "Hey buddy," the blue creature said. "How do you feel?"

Hearing an animal speak was no surprise to Cloud after knowing RedXIII for years. Cloud lifted himself up and dusted his clothes off. After doing so, Cloud inspected the three creatures that appeared to be the natives of this planet. They didn't seem to pose any type of threat. At least, not to him. "Yeah thanks."

"What were you doing falling out of the sky there?" the blue creature spoke again.

The sky? The thought entered Cloud's head. He remembered doing battle with the robot and-

"Tifa!" Cloud shouted.

"Ti-what?" the red creature scratched his abnormally large head.

"We have to go back. We have to save Tifa."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just calm down. We don't know what you're talking about. First let's start with your name. The name's Sonic and these are my friends, Tails and Knuckles.

Cloud sighed and put squeezed gently on the bridge of his nose. "Cloud, Cloud Strife."

"Okay Cloud why not tell us what you were doing up in the sky there," Sonic pointed up.

"Well you see, my friend Tifa and I were cruising the skies when this giant airship came out of nowhere and sent this robot to attack us. I tried as hard as I could to fight it off. But it was too strong."

Sonic keeled backwards a bit, showing he knew exactly what Cloud was talking about. "Sounds you had a run in with Eggman. Tell me what this robot of yours looks like."

Cloud looked back at the memory of the fight once more. The image of the robot froze as if watching a recorded image. Its body structure was similar to Sonic's. "It looked a lot like you Sonic."

Tails folded his arms and frowned. "Sounds like you had a run in with Metal Sonic."

"Metal Sonic?"

&&&&

Yuffie lay in her opened pod in feeble position soaking her arms with tears. Vincent was gone and now she was all alone. There would be no way for her to express her true feelings to Vincent. If only he hadn't been so foolish as to being so introversive, he would probably still be here with her. What would Vincent say if he saw her now? Crying. Vincent would show no signs of emotions as he would try to comfort her. Yuffie pulled her head up and wiped her tears. She had to find the rest of her friends. She couldn't stand being alone. The young ninja sniffed and wiped her face once more before she finally leaped out of her pod. In the far distance Yuffie could see an industrialized area. A city where she would probably get to meet the natives of this planet. Yuffie landed on a nearby tree and stopped to think. What would they look? Hopefully humanoid beings. She would feel pretty strange being around being around some green skinned, black eyed aliens. Well in her case, she would be the alien. "Well there's only one way to find out," Yuffie said in her cheerful voice and continued jumping from tree to tree making her way to the nearby city.

&&&&

"This Eggman of yours sounds like bad news," Cloud said as he put his swords with one another. "That means Tifa is in big trouble."

"Yep," Sonic put his hands behind his head.

"Sonic," Knuckles called. Sonic approached his best friend who had a slight on his forehead.

"It's the Master Emerald isn't it?" Sonic already knew Knuckles had a connection to Angel Island. Knuckles gave Sonic a nod.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go back. I won't be able to help with Eggman."

Sonic put his hand on Knuckles' shoulder. " I understand. Now go. Besides, we have a new friend in Cloud over there. And judging by the size of his sword I'm sure he'll give Eggman a run for his money."

Knuckles and Sonic looked over toward Cloud who was engaged in a conversation with Tails. The red echidna gave Sonic a nod and without saying goodbye, he took off into the air. Sonic turned back to Cloud and Tails. "Well what's the word Sonic," Tails asked.

"Knuckles had some business to attend to on Angel Island. So we're one man short." Sonic's eyed narrowed on Cloud. "Well Cloud, what do you say? Will you help us save take down Robotnic and save our friend?"

"Only if we save Tifa," Cloud's cool voice let the words slide out of his mouth. Without saying anything else, he began making his way towards the Tornado.

Tails grabbed Sonic by the arm. "Sonic are you sure we can trust this guy. I mean look at him, he looks kind of dangerous." 

Sonic rubbed the bottom of his nose with his finger and then gave Tails his signature smirk and thumbs up. "Don't worry little buddy. If anything goes wrong then leave it to me."

Sonic put his hand on Tails' head and shook his hair around a bit. Tails giggled and gently flailed his arms around to remove Sonic's. "Well Sonic, if you put it that way."

&&&&

so what did you suys think of this one. I would like to thank arkard for being the first to review this new story of mine. By the way, Shadow and Vincent are going to be the main characters of this story it will be a while before the story focuses on them. Well I'll be waiting for your reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

Well now, it appears that the old Reploid hasn't lost its touch. I thank arkard once again for reviewing my story. I also thank tigerprime for his/her comments. I hope to get many more. Fi you didn't read that last note I put in one of my previous chapters, Vincent and Shadow are the main characters of this story. The story will from time to time digress to what the other characters are doing but soon enough I will reveal the relationship of Shadow the Hedgehog and Vincent Valentine. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

Vincent lifted himself up. He coughed a couple of times, each cough weakening his arms more and more. His felt hot and he could barely remember what had happened. Viewing his surroundings Vincent found that he was in what appeared to be library of computers. Floppies and CDroms were scattered all over the floor and some of the computer monitor screens had been blown out. There were bullet holes in some of the windows, which appeared to be bullet proof. What was this place, Vincent wondered. His head began to cause Vincent to kneel over from dizziness. The memory of Chaos flying through space entered his mind. He remembered passing out just before reaching the space stations walls. But was it that he got in this room? The windows, he thought. There was something strange about them. One of them was missing. Vincent counted three windows in an organizing row and then found a metal plate that apparently slid from the under the wall keep the pressure stable. He must've crashed through the window. That would explain why the room was in such bad shape. Vincent's attention was caught by a flickering light in a nearby corner. He put a his hand on his gun, Cerberus, and slowly approached the light.

&&&&&&

Shadow panted heavily, he couldn't take these discharges much longer. Well he could but at the same time he couldn't. if only his creator were still alive. He would probably be able to explain the strange behavior his body was undergoing. But sadly, neither his creator nor Maria was alive. He would have to resolve this matter on his own. Shadow dragged himself to a desk and lay upon it. He let his head drop to the side and shut his eyes for second. A strange light could be seen from behind the shade of his eyelids. Shadow opened his eyes to find the large monitor hooked into a wall was shutting on. There was a visual on the screen saying " Please Enter Password."

&&&&&

Vincent had scene this same technology before. The computer repeated again, "Please Enter Password. The computer's voice, it was a women's voice. And not just any woman it was the voice of Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. Vincent's heart began to ache as the terrible memories swelled in his mind. He reached into his cloak and pulled a red disk. It was one of the G-Report he had found while searching the Shinra manor in his fight with Deepground. He immediately found a port in which the disk could be entered and inserted it. The computer made soft drilling sound letting Vincent know it was processing. There had to be some kind of connection with Lucrecia and this space station. The enter password screen disappeared revealing a list of documents that came from the G-Report. He had scene all of these documents multiple times. But this time something was different. There were four new document highlighted in purple.

&&&&&&

It was strange. The computer had mysterious started up on it's own. Shadow approached the computer and admired the documents labeled G-Report. Could these documents have kind of connection to him? What did it all mean? The bar highlighted G-Report 1 began to scroll down the other programs on its own. Shadow narrowed his eyes with anger. There was someone aboard he Space Colony ARK and there was only one other computer that was connected to the one he stood in front of. Within no time at all, he dashed off into the hall. He came to a halt in front of a door labeled library and placed his hand on the door. The two connected broke apart then stopped and continued to open once more. There standing in front of a computer was a human unlike another. You could almost smell the Chaos energy radiating from his body.

&&&&&&

Vincent's eye was caught by the small black creature that stood before him. It had strong aura of both pure and corrupted Life energy coming from his body. What was this creature. Vincent slowly reached for Cerberus as a precaution.

"Don't even try it," came a deep and dried out voice. Vincent's eyes must have been playing tricks upon him; the black creature from before was gone. He spun around to find that it was standing only a few feet before. This time it was holding a small handgun aimed at Vincent. Vincent showed no signs hesitation as he put his hand back to his side. "What are you doing here?"

Vincent didin't know how to answer. How could explain something so complex? Hi, my home world was destroyed so I decided I'd crash here for a while. I hope you don't mind. No that wasn't going to work.

&&&&&&

"I'll ask again," Shadow fired a round towards one of the human's feet. "What are you doing on the Space Colony ARK."

The human moved one his feet back and put his hand on the desk next to him. He was planning to do something. Without even hesitating, the human swipe his hand across the desk, knocking dusk into Shadow's face. Shadow backed away from the dust and swept his arms around, moving the dust away. Once he opened his eyes, Shadow met a fist to the forehead that knocked him over. He quickly recovered and pointed his gun forward only to find that he too had a gun pointed at him.

&&&&&

Shadow and Vincent stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Neither of them moved. Vincent flexed the muscles of his right arm and squeezed it into a fist. He swiped his claw through the air only find that Shadow easily evaded it. Shadow countered by firing off a few rounds. Vincent fired a few rounds of his own. The bullets met in midair and fell to the metal ground, melting into one another. Shadow and Vincent gave each other unnoticeable smirks. This was going to be interesting.

&&&&&

Cloud stood hunched over, grabbing onto the tornado's wing and Tails drew closer and closer to Eggman's fortress. He looked to Sonic who seemed to maintain perfect balance throughout the whole trip. Cloud envied the blue hedgehog and told he would to learn Sonic's technique. "Sonic!" Tails shouted as from the cockpit. "We've got bogies at 12 o'clock. Sonic and Cloud squinted their eyes trying to see through the heavy wind pounding against them. From over the horizon of Eggman's ship came a bundle of small dots which faded into the form flying robots as they drew closer. Cloud clutched the handle on his sword and brought it across the bottom half of his face. He WAS going to get Tifa back.

&&&&&

Tifa pounded on the cage doors. "Let me out!" she shouted. She pulled back fists and folded her arms. The sound of screws mechanically being undone came from above as a screen folded out of the ceiling. The screen clicked showing the image of Dr. Eggman.

"Will you cut that out?" the evil doctor shouted.

Tifa responded by pulling the bottom half of her right eyelid down and sticking out her tongue. Eggman cursed in frustration. "Fine then. Since you can't seem to behave on your own then I'm going to send you a friend to play with. A slot opened in the side of Tifa's cell. Tifa struck a fighting pose, not knowing what to expect. Within seconds, a small, pink creature came crawling through. It stood up revealing it was obviously a girl. She had on a pink dress and red headband. The pink creature looked about her surrouds in confusion.

"Oh," she said grabbing her head and shaking. "I thought I was out of here for sure."

"Amy Rose," Eggman caught the pink hegdehog's attention. "Meet uh?"

The screen turned back towards Tifa as if waiting for a response. Tifa dropped her fists and scowled at Eggman. "The name's Tifa."

Eggman stared at Tifa for a while and then without saying anything further, the monitor pulled into the ceiling. Amy slowly approached Tifa while looking at the cell. "Wow," she said with awe. "What happened here?"

The room was covered in deep dents and cracks. Deep ones, but not deep enough to break through. "I did," replied as she turned back to the cells bars and pounded her fists against them. With every punch Tifa made the room would shake. Amy stood at Tifa's side, shocked. She had never met anyone, let alone a woman strong enough to do such damage. Not even Knuckles could do such damage to one of Eggman's cells. He could barely break out of a level one cell but this was a level three and a mere human female did enough damage to flatten Knothole Village.

"So how did Eggman get you?" Amy sat against a wall still watching Tifa wail away at the wall. Tifa stopped and looked at her fist.

"It's complicated," Tifa said and continued her assault on the prison bars. She couldn't tell Amy that she was from another world and at the same time she didn't want to lie.

&&&&&&

Eggman rocked back and forth in his chair looking at his new assistant. She was unlike anyone else he had ever met. Her knowledge of computers had far surpassed his own. She could solve equations in the speed an elementary school student could solve on plus one. "Tell me Shelke," the young, orange haired girl stood in front of him. She bore no emotion in her glowing mako eyes. "Tell me more of this world you come from. I am still intrigued by the technology of your home world. How is it that you are able to extract a naturally formed element and make it into a manufactured power source?"

Shelke lifted her head a bit and responded with a question of her own. "Doctor," she started her in her monotone voice. "Are you sure that you didn't find any kind of communication device when you discovered my pod?"

"Why no I did not," Eggman shook his head, lying. Shelke must've had some kind of connection with his new prisoner. He put his hand on gently pulled her along with him. He led her over to a nearby door that automatically slid open. Inside, were the body parts of old robots. All the pieces seemed to be somewhat identical. Eggman led Shelke over to a large test tube that contained a robot. "This is Metal Sonic. I created him for the soul purpose of protecting this planet."

"By placing Metal in the name I assume that this is of many robotic versions of some kind of organic life form," due to her blunt tone of voice, it was difficult to tell if Shelke was asking a question or making a statement.

"Correct,"Eggman slapped her gently of the shoulder. " I just recently downloaded all the information I have into your chair."

"What does all this have to do with me?"

"Simple my dear," Eggman guided Shelke out of the room.

&&&&&

That's number four. Please review.


	5. Chapter 5

Enjoy.

Chapter 5

The warm heat of a fire woke Red XIII. The tiger/wolf creature lifted its head to find itself at the base of some kind of shrine. He could see a faint green light shining at the top.

"How do you feel?" came an unrecognizable voice. A pair of red legs came from behind RedXIII and sat down next to him. The rest of the body bore the form of some kind of red creature with abnormally large fists. Red XIII tried to get to feel the force of a sharp pain in his paw pull him back down. The other red creature put out a hand in attempt of assistance. "Easy boy. You're hurt pretty bad."

"Boy?" Red XIII finally spoke.

&&&&&

Knuckles dropped his jaw. What kind of creature was this? It looked like a tiger yet it also looked like a wolf. On top of that, it could talk.

"Judging by the tone of voice I can tell that I'm well older than you are young man."

Knuckles pushed away from the creature unsure of what to think. "What the heck?" Knuckles started. "What is this….who the…..how did…?"

Words could not explain what Knuckles was feeling. The red tiger/wolf tilted its head and smiled at the red echidna. "What's wrong? You act as if you haven't seen a talking animal before."

"Well yeah but," Knuckles paused after finally realizing the humor. "Hey."

The red tiger/wolf chuckled and looked down at his injured paw. It had a bandage wrapped around which was obviously done by his new red friend. He squinted his eyes, concentrating on the paw causing a round, green glow to form in the lower part of his leg. "Cure," RedXIII softly said and his paw was consumed by a soft green light. After the glow cleared, he moved his paw a few times to make sure the pain was gone.

&&&&&&

Knuckles was once again in awe. One moment the tiger/wolf creature had a sprained paw, the next thing he knew it was healed. "What just happened?"

"Relax" the tiger/wolf replied. "Well why don't we stop with all the shock and start with our names? I have a few questions that need to be answered."

Knuckles blinked a few times and finally calmed down. "Yeah um…. Well where should I start." Knuckles asked.

"Your name boy, your name. Fine I will introduce myself first. My name is RedXIII."

Knuckles noticed the tattoo of the Roman Number, 13. He put his hand on the back of his head and scratched it. "Well I'm Knuckles. So, Mr. RedXIII, I've seen you around these parts before. How did you get on the floating island?"

RedXIII tilted his head and gave Knuckles a 'what are you talking about a floating island' look. Knuckes pointed out towards the horizon and guided RedXIII towards what appeared to be the tip of the island. The tiger/wolf looked to find there was nothing but ocean at the island's base. Indeed, he was on a floating island. This was a very strange world he was in. "I found you unconscious in the forest with some strange machine. Were you captured by Eggman."

"Eggman?" RedXIII brought his attention to the sound of that strange name. who in their right mind would name their child Eggman.

"It's alright, Sonic and Tails with be back here with their new friend, Cloud."

"Cloud," RedXIII jumped up and knocked Knuckles over. "Where is Cloud? Please tell me. Did you find anyone else with me when you found me? Please I need to know!"

"Whoa calm down," Knuckles picked himself up and dusted his legs and arms of any dust that was there. "When I found you, you were all alone. It seems that you've got some explaining to do."

&&&&&&&

Shadow was thrown against a wall. His opposition came at him with his claw extended. Shadow tapped his feet together, activating his jet boots and blasted off the wall. He pulled himself into a ball and rolled through into a glowing ball that met Vincent's claw in a minor explosion. The two were knocked away from each other a few feet. Vincent lifted himself and leaned on his knee. The black creature lay unconscious before him. He pulled his gun from its pocket and slowly and looked over Shadow's body. He pointed it at him and squinted his eyes. He could feel the room had begun to heat up. There were no signs of any ventilation. He looked down at the black hedgehog to find that he was swelling with a thick red energy. His quills were blowing in a non-existing wind.

"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow cried as he threw his eyes open. An explosion erupted from his body, knocking Vincent into an open elevator shaft. Upon impact with the wall behind him, Vincent slowly peeled off of it and fell down into the dark abyss. Shadow stood over the open shaft, holding his injured arm. He hadn't faced anyone like this before. Sonic was nothing compared to this guy. He turned around and approached the computer monitor Vincent was previously operating and activated one of the files labeled 'Chaos Stream.' The screen blacked out, a red line beaming across a sign indicating that it was processing his command. The screen faded into the image of his former creator, Dr. Gerald Robotnik. The scientist began to speak by saying the date in which it was recorded, "We recently discovered a space shuttle of sort and found it inhabited by a group of fellow scientists led by this woman."

A photo of a blonde haired woman popped onto the screen. Her hair her stopped shortly after it met her shoulders. Shadow observed the woman on the screen, he had never scene her in his life. What the connection between her and Gerald? The screen shifted to the image of Shadow's creator who had resumed his arrogation. "Her name was Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. Apparently, her and her staff have arrived from another world. She has agreed to assist in our research in building the Ultimate Lifeform. Dr. Crescent has told me of her world. It seems that the natives of her home planet have found ways in which they can draw natural energy from the earth and use it as an alternative to electricity. I wish to know more if this Lifestream she preaches to us. Perhaps there is something that ties her story to our world's Chaos Emeralds."

With that said, the screen went blank for a moment and returned to the menu of the other unviewed programs. Shadow put his hands on the computer mouse and prepared to open the next program when he was interrupted by the sound of faint footsteps. Shadow slowly turned around with his handgun out to find none other than the human he had just done battle with. "So you came back for another round huh?"

&&&&&

Vincent did not answer. He was shocked at what he had heard in the previous message. Lucrecia had been here, in this space station. Apparently Cid was not the first person to have went into space. He had to keep this a secret. Vincent stood beside the black and red creature and kneeled onto the table. "Can we please watch this over?"

&&&&&

Cloud slammed against a wall with Sonic at his side. They could feel the shots of Eggman's robots scorching the other side. Cloud clutched his sword and looked at his blue companion. "Is it always like this when you break in to save your friend?"

"No," Sonic replied with signature smile. "Sometimes I knock. Now let's take these guys."

The two nodded to one another and jumped from behind the wall. Sonic blazed into the fray leaving Cloud behind. A blue streak bounced off the walls knocking into the evil scientist's SWAT Bots. Cloud pressed into his sword's blade, causing one of its extensions to unclip, revealing a second sword. Cloud approached a nearby robot and slashed at one of its legs. The tall robot kneeled over as if it had felt pain. Cloud brought his sword up and slashed a second time at the damaged leg, this time cutting it off. The SWAT Bot keeled over and was consumed by its own explosion. Cloud leapt at a second SWAT Bot who had it fist bent forward revealing a small cannon. Cloud deflected each shot with immediate swipes of his two swords as he flew forward. Once in striking range, the blonde slashed through the mech's head. Sonic came dashing through the SWAT Bot's torso, making sure it was dead.

&&&&&

The door to Eggman's holding cell came crashing off. The bars near the door's center were deeply bent showing it was hit with a high compilation of energy. Tifa and Amy came walking out the cell. Tifa cracked her knuckles and casually made her way into a hall that was flooded with the sound of an alarm. Apparently they weren't the only ones around. Amy came to Tifa's side and peeped her head out of the hallway.

"It's Sonic," Amy cheered. "He's come to save us."

"Sonic?" Tifa replied. Amy ran down the hall leaving Tifa dumbfounded. "Cloud where are you?"

&&&&&&

Cloud picked up his phone and dialed in the frequency to reach Tifa. There was no signal inside of the Eggaman's fortress. This Eggman character wasn't a dumby, not as if Cloud ever thought he was. His security grid was unlike anything he had ever seen. This new style of technology far surpassed that of his home world. Sonic, he lead Cloud a few inches ahead, stopped and brought up his hand to signal Cloud to stop. The blonde haired human stopped as he was directed to and was brought to the attention of footsteps. Apparently two sets. A pair of shadows took form on the wall before them. Sonic clenched a fist and spread his legs apart. Cloud squeezed the handle to his sword as a foot slid out from behind the wall. He couldn't take the suspense anymore. Cloud lunged forward brought his sword down only to find it to be blocked by a large mallet. Cloud's eyes spread open in shock to see that he was in a blade lock with a tiny creature identical to Sonic. The pink animal groaned as she pushed Cloud off her.

"Amy," Sonic interrupted. The pink hedgehog let down hammer and dashed over to Sonic and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh Sonic," Amy cried. "I was so scared."

"Amy?" came a second female voice. Tifa emerged from behind the wall to find Cloud. "Cloud."

Cloud put his sword away and approached his childhood friend. Tifa embraced Cloud and buried her face into his chest. The heart-warming reunion was soon cut short by the sound of metal slamming together. The four turned around to a large sealed door. Cloud held a tight squeeze for one of his many swords but did not pull it out yet.

&&&&&&

"You and I are almost the same," Shadow leaned against the desk and looked at the computer screen, which had a menu of the other unwatched programs. "We're not all that different you and I."

Vincent stood by a window, looking out into the vast void of space. "I had no idea that she had actually been in outer space. So many secrets. But who am I to complain."

"Where are the others that you told me about? You told that you had traveled to mobius with a group."

Vincent pushed off the window and brought his gaze over to the black hedgehog. He then looked back out the window to the green planet below them. Having fought with Shadow, Vincent had forgotten about his friends. "Is there any way that I can get down to the planet?"

"Why?"

"My friends."

Shadow and Vincent looked deeply at one another for a few seconds. The black hedgehog couldn't decide what to do. He didn't know Vincent well enough to let him leave the ARK. But what if he was telling the truth?

&&&&&

Tails could see the Angel Island coming at him from behind the horizon of clouds. The volcano at its center gutting out of the ground dominated the island's landscape. The light brown fox flew over the floating with the volcano to his port side and found the forest behind it had been decimated. Trees were snapped out of place and a large trench had been formed. This was no ordinary trench. It looked as if one of the evil doctor, Eggman had crashed his ship or maybe a meteorite had fell from space. Tails flew along the trail to see that it stopped at foot of the where he had set up his workshop. A space unlike any he had seen before lay in waster. It was obviously not from Eggman's fleet. Those were always red and yellow and had his insignia painted on their sides. Tails came in easily on his landing strip and brought his purple plane to a halt only meter away from his workshop. He hopped out of his plane and looked over the cliff side at the wreckage that was the airship.his attention was soon drawn by a door slamming open behind him then drew his attention. Tails found a human male carrying a pack of tools out of his workshop. The human casually walked by without saying a word to the small fox. Tails tilted his head a bit.

"What the?"

Sorry it took so long to update. School is murder on me. I just made the honor roll and I haven't had any time to write so I thought I'd try to give you guys an extra long chapter this time.


	6. Chapter 6

Enjoy.

Chapter 6

Cloud and Tifa stood side to side with Sonic and Amy were only a few feet away from them. The steel door at the other end of the room was decorated with fist moldings. The fists didn't seem to be very big though. In fact, they seemed to be about the same size as Sonic or Amy's fists. Tifa squeezed down on Cloud's arm as if she were scared. Cloud had never imagined Tifa to be one to be fearful. Having fought against Sephiroth and the even Genesis, why of all times should she be afraid?

The pounding had finally stopped and the group finally loosened their tensed muscles. Cloud's grip had stayed strong on his sword. There only chance of getting out was through the door that lay before them. They would have to fight what was on the other side.

"Sonic I'm scared," Amy hugged against the blue hedgehog.

Sonic gave no reply. He had a good clue of what awaited him on the other side. The door capsized revealing Metal Sonic. Cloud's heart knocked against the inside of his chest. "Surrender now and you might be spared," the robot said. Its appearance had slightly changed and his voice seemed to bare emotion. Almost as if it were living.

"I don't think so pal," Sonic shouted back. "I've beaten plenty copies before and this shouldn't be any different."

"Oh please, I am different from the other models."

"That's what they said."

&

This wasn't how things were supposed to be. She had agreed to help Dr. Robotnik in liberating his rodent problems, but he said nothing about fighting Cloud. Shelke shrank into her chair. He stomach tightened and her heart hastened with fear. What had she gotten herself into? She could see through the robot hedgehog's eyes through her helmet. The visuals were not very vivid due to the fast paced movement of the the new Metal Sonic. Shelke could take maual control at any but found herself unable to do so. What was holding her back? Was it guilt or perhaps fear? Such feelings were knew to her. To think one of the Tsviets, an elite of Deepground, would sink so low as to getting scared. A door slid open behind her. Dr. Robotinik approached the young girl's side and set his large hand on her shoulder. "And how are things coming along my dear?" he asked in his deep yet scratchy voice. Without any hesitation, Shelke jumped from out of her chair and knocked Eggman over set one of her feet on his torso.

"Fine doctor, " Shelke replied. She squeezed one of the arms on her chair.

&

"Tifa, protect Amy," Sonic shouted as he and Cloud leaped into action. Cloud grabbed Sonic's arm and spun him aound. Once he made a full revolution he through the blue hedgehog at his metallic counterpart. Metal Sonic put out his hand preparing the catch Sonic. Sonic crashed had into Metal Sonic, sending them back through the door. Cloud followed the two through leaving Tifa and Amy behind.

"Cloud!" Tifa called but it was too late. Cloud was out of earshot. "Amy we'v got to help them."

"Are you crazy?!" the pink hedgehog yelped. Tifa tightened her gloves ready for battle.

"I must be." With that she ran after Cloud and Sonic.

Metal Sonic brought his fist to meet Cloud's sword and the two pulled back. They met once more and again, and again. Cloud brought his sword down a third and this time the two pressed against each other. Cloud moved his eyes behind Metal Sonic over to a pile of rubble to find Sonic emerging from it. Sonic shook himself of all the dust and shot forward with his straight out. Without looking, Metal Sonic immediately reacted and within less of a second. He had a grip on Sonic's head.

"You two just don't get do you?" Metal Sonic asked. "I am the ultimate Metal Sonic."

"Cloud!" TIfa burst into the room and slammed her elbow into Metal Sonic's face, knocking it into a pile of rubble. "Let's get out of here."

Cloud and Sonic gave her a nod and made their leave.

&

"What are you doing don't touch that!" Tails shouted. His workshop had tools laying about the room and it reeked of cigarette smoke. A human male pushed Tails to the side as he exited the workshop carrying a set of iron bars.

"Relax kid I'll return your stuff once I've finished repairing my airship."

The human kicked the door open and went outside. Tails dropped his head and sighed. Who was this stranger? "Oooooweeee what a beauty."

Tails ran out the door to find the human standing on top the tornado. This is some plane you've got here, kid. Who built this?'

"Thanks. Actually I built it myself."

"No kidding? Wow you must some kind of kid, Kid."

"Thanks Gramps," Tails put his finger across his nose in flattery.

"Hey there now, don't go off calling me Gramps, ya' hear? The name's Cid. Cid Highwind"

"Alrighty. I'm Miles Prower. But everyone calls me Tails. Well then since we've gotten the introductions out the way I have a question for you Cid."

Tails looked over the cliff side his workshop that his workshop stood towards the wrecked airship, signifying what his question entailed.

&

"What kind of dump of a detective agency are you guys running?" Yuffie nearly gagged upon seeing the inside of the Chaotix Detective Service's office. Pizza boxee and paper work decorated the single desk and the floor. Vector came in from behind the young ninja girl.

"Well excuse me," he said. "But we happen to have a very busy schedule."

Tifa spotted the phone in a corner and found that the cord had been unplugged from the wall. She rolled her eyes and proceeded into the room allowing Charmy Bee and Espio the Chameleon to enter. "But don't worry. With me, Yuffie Kisuragi , a part of the Chaotix Detective agency you'll get new clients in no time."

Espio approached Yuffie with an angry look on his face. "Don't think that you are going to just barge in here and take over okay. If it wasn't for us you'd still be trapped in that space pod of yours."

(Flashback)

Yuffie huddled into a feeble position. Her escape pod spun wildly out of control towards the green planet below. There was no chance of her survival now. Not that it mattered or anything. The only one she trusted, Vincent was gone forever. Engulfed by the cruel dark void of stars.

It grew hotter and hotter with every passing second. She was in the planet's atmosphere now. Yuffie felt a harsh burn against her back and pushed off of the wall. She placed a hand on her back. "Cure," she softly said and a cool sensation came from her hand and the wound on her back healed. It continued to heat up inside. Yuffie looked at her wrist and saw three circular glows coming from her arm. A single green and two red. She could summon two Eidolons. But the question was which ones? Now was not the time to worry about that now, or was it? Yuffie squeezed in her fist focusing on one of the red materia; she heard the sound of a horse galloping. She now knew that she had summoned Odin. She looked out her spinning window to see what appeared to the Eidolon racing toward her through the air on his six legged horse. His hand was reaching out to her. Just then Yuffie felt herself being yanked away from the window and thrown against the opposing wall. Knocking her out.

The world around slowly came back into view as Yuffie regained conscience. She was alive but she wasn't sure how. It was a miracle, if that's what you wanted to call that. To her it felt like a curse. She was separate from all of her friends who were probably dead by now and she was stuck. Alive and alone.

&

It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Perhaps it was something that the good doctor had sent to destroy Sonic. No, if so than it would have...hatched or something. Right? Charmy Bee slowly hovered over to the banged up metal contraption. What was it? His attention was caught by a cracked window. He peered inside and saw a female overlander. Blood was flowing down the side of her head. She was obviously not one of Eggman's robots. He had to help her. Charmy shot off into the forest in search of his friends. It didn't take long before he found Vector leaning against a tree bumping his headphones to a ridiculous capacity. Charmy nudged one of Vector's legs but the distracted Croc didn't seem to notice.

"Vector you've got to come see this," Charmy yelped in his premature voice but it didn't seem to overpower the high frequency of Vector's music. "Vector!"

Charmy had, had it up to here. He pulled himself up over Vector's muzzle and pushed out his stinger. He lifted his legs out of the way and shot straight down onto the crocodile's nose. Vector shouted in pain and grabbed his nose. "Charmy!" he shouted. "What's the deal? Can't you see I'm trying to listen to my tunes?"

"Why don't you try turing it down you big doof? The whole world could be going to Hell and you wouldn't know because your music is blasting too loud."

"Never mind all that. What's the problem? What do you want?"

"I found something you really need to take a look at this."

"This better not be another one of your alien sightings."

"No it's a girl and she's hurts."

Charmy guided Vector back to the metal contraption. It hadn't changed since he left it and the girl was still inside.

"What do you make of it," came a dark, raspy voice. Within seconds, Espio the Chameleon came into clear view how long he had been waiting for them they didn't care to ask.

"I don't know," Vector rubbed his chin. "But whoever she is. We've got to get her out of their."

&

Yuffie could hear voices outside. She could she feet moving around outside. Perhaps some locals had come to save her. Or not. Her pod shook upon heavy impact with something. They were banging on the pod's exterior. Dents formed along the top of the pod getting deeper and deeper until a hole had formed.

"Are you alright in there?" came a child's voice.

She was saved.

(End of Flashback)

"Yeah, don't rub it in," Yuffie scratched her head with her eyes closed. "I said thanks didn't I?"

"Well anyway," Vector interupted the two. "Why don't you try getting in touch with your friends again? I mean you haven't tried yet have you?"

It took a while for the words to process in Yuffie's mind. Her friends. She reached for her phone and looked at it. The last time she tried she couldn't get anything out of it. Should she try again?

&

This new world was like his own. The cars in the city, the people busily going about their business. He felt he had never left Gaia. Though there were some things that this planet would never have. Her. Lucrecia. Her crystalized form enterd his mind. Her beauty echoing in his heart as a mere memory now. And that was she will remain. A memory.

"Tell me," Shadow suddenly interupted Vincent's thought process. "Who are you thinking about?"

Vincent looked down at the black hedgehog. "Nothing. No one."

Shadow could obviously tell that he was lying. Shadow had been told that he had that same look whenever he reminisced on Maria. Like him, this Vincent character carried a heavy burden on his shoulders. Something happened in his past. Something dreadful. Vincent had lost someone just as he did 50 years ago.

"Will you please be quiet?" came a feminine voice.

"Geewiz Lassy!" a squeaky Irish accent responded. "All you had to do was ask."

Vincent recognized the voice immediately. Cait Sith. Reave was always with him. But the female voice Vincent had never heard before.

"Rouge," Shadow mumbled.

Upon saying her name Rouge the Bat came from around a corner with a small black cat and a tall man with long hair. The black cat stopped and tugged on the man's leg. "Vincent you're alive!"

Vincent didnt show any sings of emotion as usual. He casually approached Reeve and Cait Sith not paying any attention to the female bat that was with them.

"But how did you survive?" Reeve asked. " before we got seperated we received a transmission from Yuffie saying that you didn't make it to your pod with Yuffie.

"It's funny you should ask me that," Vincent didn't quite understand how he survived himself.

"It was Chaos wasn't it?"

There was a brief silence amongst the group when Rouge intervened. "Excuse me for interrupting your family reunion but can someone please tell me what's going on here? Who is this guy?"

"Rouge,"Shadow let out a smirk and folded his arms.

"Well if isn't Shadow," the bat approached the black hedgehog and placed her hand at the base if his chin. "Where have you been? It's been a while."

"I've been around,"Shadow pulled away.

"This is our friend Rouge," Reeve began to explain. "We got separated. But since Vincent and I managed to survive. There's no doubt in my mind that and the others are okay."

&

"That Metal Sonic was unlike anything I had ever fought before," Sonic said.

"Don't worry Sonic," Amy wrapped her arm around Sonic's and leaned her head on his shoulder. "You'll beat him. You always do. Besides, we have Cloud and Tifa to help us."

"Sonic," Cloud came in. "I think we should go our separate ways from here.

"What? Cloud what are you saying?" Tifa asked. "But he can help us find our friends. Don't you want to see Barret and the others?"

"We shouldn't get him involved with our problems."

"But Cloud we're in a strange new land. How long do you think we'll last if we don't even know where to go. Who know? The natives of this planet probably aren't as friendly as Sonic and Amy."

Cloud looked away and thought. Why did Tifa always have to be so right all the time? Just then his phone vibrated. Cloud's heart raced with joy as he slowly pulled it out of his pocket. He looked into the screen. Barret. He was alive.

"Cloud you're welcome to come with us if you like," welcomed Amy. "I have a friend who doesn't live too far from here."

If he followed Sonic and Amy then he would probably find his friends again. But there was always a chance that they wouldn't find them.

"C'mon Cloud," Sonic provoked. "We're buds now and buds don't leave each other hanging.

Cloud turned to the blue hedgehog and gave him a nod.


	7. Chapter 7

My oh my it has been a long time hasn't it? Well for starters, I have graduated from high school and am now a freshman at Talladega College. This school has A LOT of problems but it's kind of growing on me. I will try to continue writing new stories as well as update some previously written ones. As I always say when I write a story; ENJOY!

Chapter 7

Walking through the woods was one of the longest walks he had ever been in. His adventure through Gaia didn't involve this much walking, at least not after he got his hands on a vehicle. Tifa was a half a step beside him looking down. He could feel her depression. As much as he wanted to…comfort her he found himself being blocked by habitual emotional walls. Ever since…she died…expressing himself just wasn't the same. Actually, it was impossible.

A crunching sound interrupted his train of thought and Cloud was snapped back to reality Sonic and Amy were still before him, walking, guiding them through what was known as the Green Hills. Sonic looked over his should toward Cloud.

"Are you guys okay?" Sonic asked. Amy also looked back with concern.

Cloud looked at Tifa. It was obvious that neither one of them were in good mental or emotional shape. "Yes," he immediately responded, his emotional walls speaking for him. Tifa crept up a little bit closer to Cloud.

"Well we are almost there. You'll be safe there. Eggman doesn't know the location of the Knothole village. Once there, we can get properly acquainted and get you two a place to stay. And who know, you may even be able to find your friends."

For some reason, Cloud couldn't help but doubt that his friends would be there. Why would they be? TIfa grabbed Cloud's arm and cuddled against it. He looked at her as they continued walking. To think that out of the people he was going to be stuck on this new world with it was his child hood friend.

"We're here," Sonic stopped in front of a tree stump. Amy stood beside him.

Tifa looked at the blue hedgehog with a blank face. "We're where?"

Sonic reached for a nearby tree pulled one of its branches. The tree stump opened revealing it to be tunnel leading to only Sonic and Amy knew where. Sonic and Amy positioned themselves on either side of the opening, welcoming Cloud and Tifa. "Hop in," Sonic said.

" You want us to…jump…in that…hole?" Tifa bent over trying to look down into the hidden entrance.

"Of course," Amy replied. "Don't you trust us after what we have just gone through? We fought our way out Eggman's city and then we fought against Metal Sonic."

"You guys can trust us," Sonic gave Cloud and Tifa his signature thumbs up.

Cloud and Tifa looked at each other and with that Tifa put one foot into the opening.

&

Eggman ducked as Shelke swung one of her Materia powered sabers around. The sword cut through a pipe that slithered from a nearby wall. The evil scientist tried to crawl away when a leg covered a blue a jump suit stepped before him. Eggman slowly looked to find Shelke's glowing orange eyes looking over him.

"Now, now my dear," Eggman slowly tried to crawl away. "Let's just calm down; I can explain everything."

"Tell me doctor," Shelke slowly crept Eggman, her voice baring no emotion. "What have you to explain? That you used my expertise in technology to assist you in ending the lives of my friends?"

"No, no, no. It's nothing like that."

Eggman immediately fell silent as Shelke's weapon stopped short of his face. He had to think of something quick. Perhaps attempting to exploit this girl was not such a good idea. He needed her though. He didn't want to lose this girl; his plans for her were not yet complete. If she could make improvements on just one Metal Sonic, imagine what an asset she would be for the Eggman Empire.

"You see my dear," Eggman started his life depending bluff. "Do you recall when I first introduced you to Metal Sonic I said I told you it was for my rodent problem? Well my previous intruders were…"

"They were my friend," Shelke calmly interrupted. "You have set me up to attempt to kill my friends."

"Not exactly my dear you see your friends were just tricked by the damn blue beast, Sonic. I never meant to bring harm on your friends."

"Then how do you justify my inability to manually override Metal Sonic's controls during the fight?"

"It's…"Eggman looked about the room until his focus went to her chair. That chair of hers had to have been the most peace of technology on this planet. "My lab…yes, it's my lab does not have the proper tools for such a high class engineer such as yourself. Perhaps there was a glitch in the system that …AH!" Eggman shrieked as the sabre jolted forward a stopped a hair's length away from his nose.

"My ability over software is beyond elite. It is flawless," Shelke looked over to her chair. But what if what Dr. Robotnik was right? Maybe there was a glitch. Using such primitive technology compared to that of Deepground's could possibly lead to a binary mix up in the robot's logic systems. And what of Cloud and Tifa; how could they allow themselves to be manipulated by such small minded creatures? As of now the doctor was the only one on this planet that she knew and she was able to contact Cloud and the others through her phone. Shelke shut off her saber s and went to her chair and sat in it. She put her SND helmet on. "However there is a possibility that you may be correct. So this brings us to our next objective. We must rescue my friends from this Sonic creature. I will begin making modifications on Metal Sonic based on today's battle."

Dr. Eggman slowly rose to his feet and then smiled.

&

"So this beautiful stone is the power source that keeps this island afloat?" Red XIII sat before the Master Emerald in awe.

"Yes," Knuckles proudly responded.

"Astounding," Red XIII looked at one of his legs to see the Materia he had glowing in it. "These Chaos Emeralds that you speak of are not so different from the Materia that comes from my world. Materia comes from our planet baring the memories of those who have passed on and returned to the planet. Materia grants its barer amazing powers from the manipulation of the elements to the summoning of a legendary beast."

"Your world sounds like it was an amazing place Red XIII."

The red beast looked down in sorrow. "Yes," he replied lightly. "It truly was."

There was a silence between the two.

&

Tails stood in awe as he and Cid entered the ruins of what was once the legendary airship, the Shera. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. As Cid made his way into the ship with his newly acquired tools Tail looked at a nearby wall which bore hieroglyphs from some ancient race of people. Who was this strange man?

"Hey kid," called Cid from down the hall. "You comin' or not?"

"Oh," Tails jumped a bit and then ran down the hall to catch up to Cid. Tails reached a large room which appeared to be the bridge of the ship. Cid stood at the steering mechanism with the tools he took from Tails' workshop. "So who are you exactly and what is this…marvelous ship?"

Cid stopped for moment, looking at the floor. Who was he? He was alone…alone and stranded in a strange new world. Cid looked at the two tailed and pointed to himself, "I am Cid Highwind, expert pilot and captain of the airship, the Shera as well as many others. My friends call me Cid."

"So where do you come from Cid?" Tails smiled with interest.

The sudden gleam on Cid's face faded and returned to depression. He was from…nowhere…at least nowhere that mattered. Gaia was gone. Wiped from the face of the universe and for him to tell his new friend where he came from was…pointless. "Why don't we worry about that later? For now, Tails, why don't you give me a hand tryna' get this ol' girl back on her feet uh?"

&

This Knothole village that Sonic and Amy lived in was seemed so peaceful. It was hard to believe that there were people on this planet who would want to destroy something so beautiful. As primitive as this place was everything to work on proper curriculum. Not like in Midgar. This seemed…perfect. He and Tifa seemed so…out of place. No physically but, emotionally. Everyone in Knothole Village was happy without a world in the world. Sonic took it upon himself to guarantee the happiness of all of its inhabitants. If only Cloud and Tifa could share this joy they all had.

"You guys are all safe here," Sonic said as he guided the group down the road. "I'm taking you to meet the royal family of Knotehole. After that we can get you settled in a hut somewhere."

"Royal family?" TIfa had only heard words like that on story books. "What for?"

"Well since you are…not Mobians it is required that you get the royal family's approval first in order for you to stay in Knothole. "

"What if we don't get their approval?" Cloud asked.

Sonic looked over his should smiling "Trust me, you will"

"Please calm down," came a little girl's screaming voice. "You have to wait until your wounds heal."

"That sounds like Cream," Amy looked around in search of her young friend. Amy pulled out of the group and walked over to a group of huts. Just then, a big man came from out of one of the huts. His hair was braided and one of his arms appeared to be mechanical.

"Barret," TIfa called to her friend. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Barret stumbled a few steps away from the doorway holding his side. A little rabbit girl with a small fairy like companion came to his side. Amy grabbed the little rabbit girl and held her close. "Cream are you okay?"

"It's okay Amy," Cream responded in a sweet tone. "This is my friend. I found him and brought him here."

"You brought a stranger into Knothole and you didn't tell anyone?"Amy was surprised. "Cream you gotta be careful next time."

"Barret," Tifa stood at his side and put her around him, helping him up. "What happened to you? Where's Red XIII?"

"I don't know. I just woke and here I am. I've been unable to get contact with anyone. 'Cept you guys. What about you?"

"Let's get you back in bed first," Tifa guided Barret back into the hut.

"I see there's a friend of yours," Sonic looked to Cloud. Cloud responded with a nod and the two followed Tifa into the hut. The inside of the hut was more than they had expected. It looked like the inside of a regular house; it was like more than inhabitable. It took judging a book by its cover to a new level. Sonic guided Cloud through the living room which led to a bedroom where Tifa, Amy, Cream were sitting around Barret who was lying in a bed that he was too large to lay in.

"Barret, what happened to you?" Tifa asked as she placed a hand on the black man's forehead.

Barret grunted in slight pain and then spoke, "I don't really remember," he said. "The last thing I remembered was entering the atmosphere and then something hit us…something fast. The next thing I knew I was here laying in this bed and I tried everyone. I was only able to reach Cloud's phone."

"Something fast? Sonic looked at Cloud.

"It must have been Metal Sonic," Amy scowled to herself at the thought of Eggman's new weapon.

&

"So you think there might be some link between the two of you?" Rouge said, sitting on a desk.

Vincent replied with a nod. The monitor displayed images of Dr. Gerald Robotnik and Lucrecia Crescent followed by experiment notes as well as the audio and video recordings. Reeve approached the monitor with a hand on his chin. "According to this study," he started. "That the same science that was used to create Shadow was used t revive you forty years ago. Dr. Crescent brought you back using the negative energy of the Lifestream; therefore birthing Chaos. She was lucky though."

Rouge hopped down from the desk and approached the monitor alongside Reeve. "What do you mean lucky?"

"You see Shadow was created from scratch. Dr. Gerald Robotnik knew what he was aiming for from the start. Vincent's revival was the result of an unexpected death. It was more difficult for her to bond Vincent's body with the Lifestream because his body was decaying."

"I see," Rouge put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Now here is what I don't understand; if Vincent's body was bonded with this...Lifestream from your home world, what was used to bring Shadow into existence?"

Rouge looked back at the black hedgehog. That was a question that he himself did not know; another mystery from this past.

"The Chaos Stream," Reeve intervened. "According to these records, the Ultimate Life Form, known as Shadow the Hedgehog, was created using the energy of the planet's Chaos Stream. This Chaos Stream is kept into a balance with Life Streams of other worlds with the assistance of the Chaos Emeralds."

"Balance?" Vincent asked.

&

Dr. Robotnik sat in his chair as he stood before his latest model of Metal Sonic being modified by his new assistant, Shelke. His smile grew wider and wider as he watched as his weapon of mass destruction have its limbs pulled from its body by automated robot arms and have them rebuilt and reshaped. He hadn't felt this excited in his life. There was no doubt in his mind that this new Metal Sonic was to be the end of Sonic the Hedgehog as well as all of Mobius. He looked at a nearby monitor to see how much of his secret program had been downloaded into Metal Sonic's battle data. It was almost complete.

End of Chapter

So what do you think? Do I still got it as a writer or what? Seriously…


	8. Chapter 8

I have decided to put up multiple chapters at once so that way I can stay in the practice of writing.

Chapter 8

Sonic guided Cloud and Amy to the gates of Castle Acorn. It was by far the most beautiful piece of architecture in this village. The guards at the gates looked skeptically at the guests the blue hedgehog and immediately brought their weapons inward to block his path.

"You dare bring humans to the village?" one of the guards asked. "And you bring them to the castle?"

"Relax," Sonic retorted. "These guys aren't from around here. They've already proven to me that they aren't enemies off Eggman. I take full responsibility for them."

The two guards looked at each other and then separated their weapons. Sonic guided the Cloud and Tifa into the castle and the first room they found themselves in was the Royal Chamber. Waiting for them was the Royal Family, the Acorns. Sonic gave a hand sign letting Cloud and Tifa know to stay back while he handled their introductions.

"Sonic," the apparent king started. "What is the meaning of this? Bringing Overlanders into the village let alone our kingdom."

Overlanders? That must have been what they called humans on this world. Strange name but they were new to this world. They may as well just play along.

"Good afternoon your kingliness," Sonic was amazingly casual speaking with the king. "My, what wonderful weather we are having today is that a new haircut?"

"Sonic. I am surprised that you of all people would break the most sacred of rules of Knothole Village."

"Such an act is considered a crime and is punished by death. Do you not see that you put the village in danger in bringing these strangers here?" this was the queen speaking, her strong, feminine voice echoing through the chamber.

"Woah, now settle down your majesties," Sonic took a step back. "I understand that bringing strangers to the village is a major rule and all but these guys are different. I met them on a rescue mission and their skills in battle might be useful to us. Besides, you know this handsome face would never want to put the village in danger. This place is my home as much as it is yours."

The king sighed and put his face in his hand.

"Father," a young feminine voice came from behind Cloud and Tifa. The two turned around to see a young chipmunk walk by with a small calculator like device in her hand. This was Princess Sally. "Give these people a chance to explain themselves. I'm sure Sonic wouldn't bring strangers here if he didn't have a good reason. Am I right?" Princess Sally looked up at Cloud.

Sonic smiled at Princess Sally. She always had his back, especially when it came to explaining things to her parents. The king and queen were silent for a moment and then looked at each other. "Sally do you not understand the severity of this situation, especially at this time of war against the Eggman Empire. What if they are spies?"

"Your majesty, trust me," Sonic stepped up to the throne. "These guys are far from spies. Besides they aren't even from around here. They come from another world."

The king and queen were silent.

&

The Chaos Stream and Lifestream. What were they and how were they connected? What is this so called balance that must be kept amongst the different worlds in the universe? Could this balance have a link to his sudden loss of control over his power? Shadow stood before a computer reading the endless research files of Dr. Gerald Robotnik and Lucrecia Crescent. The Lifestream and the Chaos Stream both serve the purpose of a serving as a blood stream to the planet, giving it life. The Lifestream is protected by the ancient beasts, the WEAPONs. The Chaos Stream is protected by Chaos WEAPON, formally known as Chaos. The Chaos Stream is the source behind the Chaos Force as well as Chaos Control. The Chaos Stream, like the LifeStream, consists of positive and negative energy. While the positive energy is returned to the planet, the negative energy is stored into the Chaos Emeralds; thus making them a source of limitless power. There a link between every world and its lifestream. This link…

"DATA CORRUPTION!" a sign appeared on the monitor. Shadow pounded his fist on the keyboard. Just as thought he was getting close to finding the answer to his many questions. He hit the keyboard again and again. When he lifted his hands he saw that the keyboard was shattered.

"Easy there, Shadow," Rouge's voice came from behind. "That temper is the source of the negative energy isn't it? Get any angrier and you end it Chaos Blasting us all into a supernova."

"Why is it that every time I think I'm close to finding out the secrets to my past they slip right through my fingers? It's like I'm being teased or something!"

Rouge approached the black hedgehog's side and placed a hand on his back. Shadow didn't look back at her. "There, there, Shadow," she said in a soothing tone. "We'll find out the secret to your past. Maybe if you talked with Vincent…"

Shadow yanked himself away from Rouge and exited the room.

"I can understand," Vincent came to Rouge's side and began typing at what was left of the keyboard. He wasn't worried about the Chaos Stream as much as he was focused on the link between Lucrecia and Shadow's creator. He opened images of research in progress and casual pictures the scientists took together. He saw one of Gerald Robotnik and little girl with blonde hair, then another with Gerald Robotnik and Lucrecia. Though the photo had her in it he did not care to continue looking at it. More pictures came and went of previous science experiments that appeared to be failure. There seemed to be an endless amount of these redundant photos, until…

A single picture caught his attention. The picture bore the image of Lucrecia standing next to the same young girl with blonde hair. This same image…he had seen before.

&

Wow…that wasn't much of a chapter was it? Well don't worry. The story is going to get better in due time.


	9. Chapter 9

Enjoy!

Chapter 9

"This ends now Metal Sonic!" Metal Sonic stood across from its foe, Sonic the Hedgehog, the one being that he was built to surpass. This time it was for certain, it WAS the most powerful version of Metal Sonic. None could surpass it. The new battle data introduced by Shelke was no doubt the push it needed in order to kill Sonic the Hedgehog.

"So it does," Metal Sonic voice was reformatted so that it nearly mirrored Sonic's. "Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic dashed forward but just as he reached his opponent he made a hard right and began to circle Dr. Robotnik's creation. Metal Sonic didn't move. Screens popped up in its eyes showing equation and opening files explaining Sonic's style of fighting. This style was indeed in its memory. Metal Sonic balled up a fist and brought it up, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. As fast as Sonic ran around it, Metal Sonic could vividly see where he was as if he were running in slow motion. It could see his open spot; it was to Metal Sonic right at a 65 degree angle from its position. Just as Sonic reached that spot, two cartridges on Metal Sonic's back flipped open revealing a pair of thrusters. The thrusters immediately activated and the robot burst forward and hit Sonic dead in the jaw. Sonic's revolution was interrupted, causing him to flip away. He landed on his head and dragged a few feet until he finally stopped and hit the ground; dead.

Metal Sonic unclenched its fist and approached the dead hedgehog. It was official, Sonic the Hedgehog was dead. Metal Sonic's eyesight went red indicating a threat was approaching. It was approaching from behind. Metal Sonic immediately turned around and brought his hand up to grab Sonic the Hedgehog by the neck. The blue hedgehog squirmed and coughed from the heavy pressure on his neck. The air flow was immediately shut off and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. It ended when his neck bone snapped in half, killing him instantly. Metal Sonic dropped him. Within less than a Sonic, Metal Sonic's hand were brought out in either direction catching two more Sonics by the head. It brought their heads together and let their limp bodies drop to the ground. Its' thrusters activated and it shot forward into the distance. As it continued when a blue blur appeared to its right, then another on its left. Two more Sonics were before it running ahead. The final three were behind it running in a triangle formation. Metal Sonic's eye temporarily lit up as if it were imitating excitement. The Sonic on its left made the first move by leaping to his side with his foot pointed straight down. Metal Sonic caught the foot with one hand and threw him into the other Sonic to his right. It looked over its shoulder and suddenly disappeared. The three aft Sonic's simultaneously gasped in awe and looked around while still maintain their triangle formation. Metal Sonic appeared between the three, keeping up with them. Its hand came up and a samurai sword appeared in its hand. Without giving the Sonic's time to fight back, Metal Sonic swiped its sword. The Sonics met their demise before they had even reached they stumbled to the ground. The final two Sonic's acted simultaneously by jumping backwards in spin mode. Metal Sonic clutched its weapon and brought it horizontally before it. It blocked the two hedgehogs and batted them away and then stopped in mid flight. A new threat had appeared from behind. Metal Sonic looked over its shoulder to find that an entire army of Sonics stood before it. The other two Sonics dropped down at the front of the army. Metal Sonic didn't show any signs of intimidation. It brought its' sword forward and pointed it forward, challenging his foes. The Sonics all took the challenge and began their attack. Thousands of blue blurs shot by at supersonic speed in all directions at once.

Eggman looked into a monitor with Shelke standing at his side. This new Metal Sonic was unlike anything he had ever seen. Never has a Metal Sonic lasted this long in a simulated battle. Level three was the maximum but this…this was level twenty, a level that Eggman thought he would never have needed. For this one robot to take down an army of Sonic's at once was…

"Incredible," Eggman told himself. "This is simply incredible, Shelke. You are truly amazing. For you to have utilized your own fighting skills and to incorporate it into my Metal Sonic's battle data AND to have given him a weapon is…"

"Not at all as big deal as you proclaim Doctor,"Shelke interrupted. "I have performed this a number of times in the past."

Eggman wanted nothing more than to slap the tiny girl for making such a smuck remark, but she had the ability to end him faster than Metal Sonic would and besides, he still needed her. "Yes of course, my dear."

Meanwhile, Metal Sonic continued his onslaught against the army of Sonic clones. One of the clones came in spin mode aiming for Metal Sonic's torso but Metal Sonic slowly stepped to the side, avoiding the attack. Another Sonic clone came in and threw a punch at Metal Sonic's face. Metal Sonic pulled his head back to put itself right out of Sonic's reach and immediately countered by kicking the clone away. Metal Sonic activated its thrusters and pulled itself away from the heavy crowd. It brought its sword horizontally from its face, part of its face reflected in the blade.

"Now, my Metal Sonic," Dr. Robotnik's voice came in over the communications medium built in its head. "Let us see your ultimate technique. Show these blue pests the power of your Zanbakuto."

"As you command, Lord Robotnik," Metal Sonic placed both hands on the hilt of its sword. The hilt opened up, spreading wider, then the blade surged with energy causing to immediately expand and grow to an unimaginable length. Metal Sonic shot straight up into the air. As it ascended higher and higher as it gained speed. Clouds burst as it went straight through them. It stopped suddenly, causing the air around to become displaced and the surrounding clouds to spread and dissipate. It looked down at the army of hedgehog and locked onto them as a target. "Behold!" it swung the enormous sword across it body. "The Sword of Magus!"

With that said, Metal Sonic brought its sword down. It fell down and down gaining speed with every passing second. Just as it reached the ground it activated its thrusters causing it to be propelled straight for the army of blue blurs. It's speed seemed to be beyond neck breaking and brought distortion to the robot's image. It looked almost as if the metal hedgehog had a become a beast with its fangs wide open as it went straight through his opponents. When it reached the rear of the group, Metal Sonic released its thrusters and dug its feet into the ground to lose speed. It held its swinging pose after its attack as if waiting for something, then an explosion occurred soon after.

Dr. Robotnik jumped out of his seat. "Brilliant, my dear Shelke, BRILLIANT! I never knew such power existed in the universe."

Shelke said nothing as she was lost in thought.

&

"So tell me again about this Professor Robotnickle," Yuffie asked as she and the Chaotix crept through sewers of an industrialized city.

"That's doctor," Vector corrected the young ninja. "Dr. Robotnik is the world's most powerful mind who wants nothing more than to conquer this world and destroy our planet's hero, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"So why don't we just send him off to fight this Robotic fella'?"

"Robotnik," Espio stepped in. "And because we don't need Sonic every time the Eggman is up to something fishy. Besides, we're just here on reconnaissance; if things appear to be dangerous than we will be the ones to handle it."

"And with me here," Yuffie drew her shuriken. "There's nothing you boys have to worry about."

Vector slapped his hand over his face and slowly dragged it down, "Right…"

The sky over the city was very dull, just as it was in Midgar. Machines were hard at work building other machines and most important of all…

"Where are the inhabitants of this city? I've seen plenty of machines but no people."

The Chaotix stopped but didn't turn to look at her just yet. It wasn't going to be easy for them to explain something like this to Yuffie. Vector looked over his shoulder towards Yuffie.

"Here comes one now," he said dreadfully.

Yuffie came around to the front of the group and saw that a robot baring the appearance of a male rabbit. It marched pass the group without so much as looking at them. Yuffie looked at Vector baffled. "I don't understand. It's just a robot."

"It wasn't always a robot," Charmy couldn't hover due to his sudden overflow of depression.

"Can somebody start making sense please?!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"You see," Espio looked into Yuffie's eyes; the serious look on his face sent a chill down her spine. "Robotnik has this machine, the Roboticizer. This machine does…something, what I don't know, that can somehow morph organic tissue into metal. It changes them into robots, removing all emotion and taking away their free will. The doctor uses these robots against us and he continuously expands his army."

"It's hard," Charmy said looking down. "When you're whole family has been taken away from and turned into robots. Do you know what it is like to be completely alone?"

Yuffie could completely relate.

"This is why we have to stop Robotnik from expanding his army and breaking families apart," Vector added in a serious tone. "This is why we do what we can to help Sonic in his battle against Dr. Robotnik."

Those words brought confidence into her heart. Vector was right; it was time this doctor was brought down. "Right!"

An alarm went off. Yuffie reached for her shuriken. Vector looked at his team, including their newest addition and led them deeper into the city.

&

"It appears that we have intruders Doctor," Shelke sat in her chair reviewing data from Metal Sonic's simulation. "I count four in Sector 7."

Eggman looked into a monitor that broadcasted an image of the Chaotix and a young female face that he did not recognize. He didn't want to risk another incident as much as he wanted to use his new Metal Sonic. "Shelke, it appears that we have another pest problem. Release the new E-Series robots to Sector 7."

"Roger that." Shelke began typing away at her chair.

&

The alarm continued to ring as the Chaotix, and Yuffie, went deeper and deeper into the city. Vector stopped running and placed and hand on his head, thinking. "Something isn't right."

"What do you mean?" Yuffie asked as she came to a stop.

"Where's the security? Eggman's is never this easy to maneuver through especially since we set off any alarm."

"HALT INTRUDERS!" a mechanical call came in, interrupting the group's conversation. "RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

"Look out!" Yuffie stepped in front of a Vector and deflected a projectile attack with her shuriken. "Looks like you spoke too soon, Vector."

Vector saw that two robots with the Alpha symbol in their left shoulders were fast approaching in the distance firing their weapon. They were all blue and black with small cannons placed on their shoulders; unlike Eggman's robots which were bulky and round, these robots were slim nimble. They were obviously fit for speed.

&

"Well here we are," Sonic opened the door to his house and walked in with Cloud following him in. once again, Cloud was amazed at the inside of the small hut. It had a living room with a big screen television, there was a kitchen next to the living room and a hall that led to what appeared to be three rooms. Sonic. Cloud's only complaint was that he had to bend over to enter the house.

Sonic had been able to persuade the king and queen with the assistance of the lovely Sally Acorn. They had agreed to have Cloud and Tifa be divided amongst their living quarters; Cloud would live with Sonic while Amy would have Tifa stay with her.

"Well, Cloud, mi casa es su casa."

"Thanks," Cloud softly said and with that, the blue hedgehog exited Cloud's room and went about his business. Cloud stepped into the hall to see that Sonic had disappeared out of the house. He was alone, again. Cloud noticed two other doors in the hall. One of the door had a sign that had Sonic's name printed on the front while the other had the word 'Tails' printed on it. Perhaps this was another occupant that he was sure to meet soon enough.

&&&&

Yuffie squeezed down on her Shuriken as a red glow grew from her forearm. The weapon was immediately engulfed in flames and Yuffie threw it. The E-series robot somersaulted out of the way and placed one of its hands on its shoulder cannon and released a small ball of energy. The young ninja retreated behind her cover and the oncoming attack exploded on the nearby ground. Yuffie curled up behind her cover, a bit startled from the explosion. Just then, a cold hand grabbed her arm and threw her from. She caught herself in midair and faced her opponent who had made its way closer while Yuffie was distracted by the previous attack. The robot prepared to fire another shot from its shoulder cannon when two small shuriken came from out of nowhere**, **literally, and lodged themselves into the head. Then as if on cue, Yuffie's shuriken returned from its long trip and cut straight through the E-Series robot neck, beheading it.

"I was wondering where you went for a moment," Yuffie whined.

"You know more than anyone that as a ninja we are to exercise stealth," Espio said as he materialized behind Yuffie.

"Ugh, you sound like my father," Yuffie rolled her eyes and looked towards the end of the corridor to see Charmy and Vector coming towards her.

"Everyone okay?" Vector said as he came to a stop.

Yuffie and Vector replied with a nod.

The reunion was soon cut short by an evil laugh. That laugh was all too familiar to the Chaotics. It was that of Dr. Robotnik.

"For now perhaps," the doctor from an unknown location. " But that was only the beginning of what the world's greatest mind has up his sleeve."

The lights in the corridor went off only to be replaced dim, red lights that only outlined the corner along ceiling. The door on the opposite side of the corridor slowly slid up. Something was coming and Yuffie knew that it was not something that she and her new friends could handle alone.

"Looks like things are starting to get serious," Vector broke the silence. He looked over at Espio, sweat eased its' way down the side of his brow. "That's your queue Espio."

The purple chameleon's concentration was broken. "What?"

"I don't know what's waiting for us at the end of that hall, but I know it's something big. You have got to get some help. Get Sonic!"

Espio nodded and slowly began to back away from the group. With every step he took, Espio became less visible. Until, he finally disappeared from sight. Yuffie could see the smallest bit of Espio's invisible image as it ran down the hall where their adversary waited.

It didn't take Espio a second to reach the end of the hall. He may not be Sonic, but his speed definateyl something to be reckoned with. Just as he passed through the door way he saw it; standing there with a sword attached to its back was another one of Eggman's Metal Sonic models. With every passing model, Eggman's machines evolved in appearance. But this model bore an appearance that seemed to be otherworldly.

"I see you," Espio's heart stopped upon hearing this.

Mecha Sonic didn't even look at Espio as he blazed by, supposedly unseen, as he spun around and fired a blast of energy that hit its mark. Espio was engulfed in an explosion, still invisible.


End file.
